2989.
POTERIUM muricatum.
Muricated Lesser Burnet.
MONCECIA Polyandria.
Gen. Char. Calyx 4-cleft, with three external scales
at its base; the tube quadrangular. Petals
wanting. Nuts 2 or 3, enclosed in the dry tube
of the calyx. Style terminal: stigma penicillate.
Spec. Char. Stem herbaceous, erect. Calyx of the
fruit hardened, 4-winged, the intermediate spaces
reticulated with strongly elevated denticulate
ridges.
Syn. Poterium muricatum. Spach in Ann. Sc. Nat.
ser. 3. v. 5. 36. Gren. et Godr. FI. Fr. v. 1. 563.
Bab. Man. ed. 5. 92. Syme, E. Bot. ed. 3. v. 3.
135, t. cccxxi.
P. polygamum. Walds, et Kit. PI. rar. Hungar. v. 2.
117, t. 197 ? Koch, Syn. FI. Germ. ed. 2. 258?
P. platylophium. Jord. Observ. PI. Nov. frag. 7. 22.
Bor. FI. du Centre de la Fr. ed. 3. 212.
P. stenolophium. Jord. 1. c. 22. Bor. 1. c. 213.
T H I S plant possesses slight claims to be considered as a
part of the true flora of Britain. It was first noticed in 1849
(Bot. Gaz. v. 1. 224), and has probably in all cases been
introduced with foreign seed to be used in agriculture, and
established itself on the borders of fields and other waste
ground adjoining the crops. It produces an abundance of
seed; and the climate of the southern half of England appears
to be so well suited to it, that it will most likely be a perma